I'm realizing now that my previous posts on this subject weren't clear
enough because I neglected to mention the specific conditions when this
problem occurs.
More simply put, whenever "width" or "height" is set to "auto", the document
should initially set these to the width of the containing block while it is
flowing the contents of the block. However, after all content is received
and flowed, if the intrinsic "width"/"height" of the block is less than the
containing block "width"/"height", then "width"/"height" should change to
the intrinsic value.
There should probably be some attribute for specifying what to do in this
condition. I see no reason to use containing block in ALL situations, the
author should specify what happens. Could we perhaps invent a value
"intrinsic" for "width" and "height" ? This would be backward-compatible,
as we can continue to interpret "auto" as containing block width, and use
"intrinsic" for the case I described above.
- Joe